Valve is pushing forward with its long-term vision by launching a system that verifies SteamOS compatibility across non-Steam Deck devices. From now on, you’ll know if a game works on your SteamOS machine — including the upcoming Legion Go S.

It’s been more than three years since the Steam Deck launched, and back then, Valve already saw the immense potential of SteamOS as a Linux-based operating system. Ever since, the company’s software team has been refining the platform with the goal of making SteamOS the go-to OS for PC-based consoles. While they’re not looking to take down Windows, Valve is steadily building an open and unified gaming ecosystem — one update at a time.

SteamOS Compatibility Now Goes Beyond the Deck

Valve has introduced a new compatibility system aimed at assessing how well Steam games run on third-party SteamOS devices — like the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S. The framework builds on the Steam Deck’s Verified system, which already assigns labels like “Verified” or “Not Compatible” to games. “This SteamOS compatibility system applies to any SteamOS device that isn’t a Steam Deck,” the company clarified.

As expected, “the rating doesn’t include performance or input tests, since we haven’t tested each title on every possible hardware configuration”. Still, Valve estimates that “more than 18,000 games on Steam will be flagged as SteamOS-compatible out of the box”. This means developers won’t need to make special adjustments for their games to run on non-Deck SteamOS hardware.

According to The Verge, the Legion Go S will be the first PC handheld console to adopt SteamOS instead of Windows. Others are likely to follow, though not all. ASUS has confirmed that its ROG Ally and future handhelds will stick with Windows — and that may be tied to rumors about ASUS building the first Xbox handheld, code-named Project Kennan.

Source: 3djuegos